There are a few surface level enhancements, most notably to Safari and Photos, but the fundamental updates to the operating system are almost entirely below the surface.Many of the upgrades are about futureproofing the OS.High Sierra marks Apple’s first real commitment to virtual reality support, for instance.For these reasons, it would perhaps be misleading to call this a “review.” And besides, as with the last several macOS upgrades, High Sierra is completely free — given the lack of visible features, it would be a harder sell if it wasn’t.At the time, the update’s most immediate impact on the end user was the fact that it might free up some storage space — something that’s obviously at much more of a premium on a mobile device than a PC.The new file system, which is being rolled out across Apple’s various lines, is optimized for flash storage (and won’t be available for Fusion Drives right away).

Russian government hackers attempted to hack the election systems of 21 states, including California, Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, during the 2016 election, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified on Friday (22 September).The announcement comes nearly 10 months after Election Day."As part of our ongoing information sharing efforts, today DHS notified the Secretary of State or other chief election officer in each state of any potential targeting we were aware of in their state leading up to the 2016 election," DHS spokesman Scott McConnell said in statement."We will continue to keep this information confidential and defer to each state whether it wishes to make it public or not."However, several states including Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington state confirmed to Reuters that they were targeted by hackers but weren't successful.The Associated Press confirmed that Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Virginia were also targeted.

Social media gets a bad rap for distracting teens and inciting political trolling, but it can also be an immense tool for compassion.A study this summer pointed out that over half of the money raised on GoFundMe was for medical expenses.If you’re on social media arguing about Obamacare, Trumpcare, or whatever Bernie is talking about, consider that we’ve donated over a billion dollars directly to individuals in need, and that’s just on one website.When a hotdog vendor was accosted by police, for not having a license to vend, it seemed legit – until you saw the video where police go in his wallet and take his cash.Further examples include how the United Nations is turning to social media to spread the word about it’s Withrefugees campaign.To help people who don’t have access to the internet, refugees in specific, UN workers are abandoning the traditional clipboard method of gathering signatures in favor of a selfie-booth system called the Simple Booth HALO and an online petition.

Apple's new flagship store in Kungsträdgården in Stockholm, sweden takes another step towards becoming a reality.On Thursday gave the city planning committee the green light to the plans that will now be out in the consultation.The new store has been hotly debated in one and a half years despite the existence of a political majority for the proposal.On Thursday voted Stockholm stadsbyggnadsnämnd finally through Apple's proposal, which is now going out for consultation, write Stockholmdirekt.”We want to examine the plans in a consultation because it's been so much reasoning back and forth.the Proposal, which is available today has its flaws but we are not entirely averse to the idea.

The globalization competition between ofo and Mobike, two of China’s top bike rental giants, is reaching a feverish pitch.Instead of revealing the entrance to overseas markets one by one, ofo announced today that it will be launching in a cluster of four European countries of Russia, Czech Republic, Italy and Netherland on the September 22nd World Car Free Day.“We’re exceptionally thrilled to announce our launches in these countries on a day that means so much to ofo.The platform was created with the ambition of improving the environment globally by introducing our low-carbon way of transportation to urban dwellers,” said Dai Wei, founder and CEO of ofo.“ofo is committed to bringing our green service to every city in need of green, convenient short-distance travel solutions.”Tapping into these new countries, ofo is launching its service in Moscow (Russia), Prague (Czech Republic), Milan (Italy), as well as Groningen & Rotterdam (Netherlands) gradually, according to a company statement.

VMworld Europe came and went just a short time ago with Pat Gelsinger CEO of VMware continuing to outline the company’s plans to create the best hybrid cloud solution by connecting businesses through a new era of the cloud with seamless technology following VMware’s aim to allow customers to access the cloud, anywhere, on any device and at any time, at least that’s how the pitch goes.During the three day conference in Barcelona, CBR got a chance to speak to the new Chief Technology Officer at Rackspace, Lee James about his new role, Rackspace’s vision and where he sees the cloud heading in the future.Coming from a background of customer engagements at BP, Lee James was excitable from the outset to talk about Rackspace and the opportunities it presents to businesses and their customers.Becoming Rackspace’s EMEA CTO just a few weeks ago, James explained the wide portfolio of capabilities the company offers its customer explaining the multi-cloud offering Rackspace provides for its customers and how they’re at the heart of his vision.James began and said: “We’ve got such a great portfolio of capabilities, coupled with our fanatical support we’ve almost got everything for everybody in terms of cloud offering then our ability in terms of professional services to stitch those solutions together I think is going to be fantastic.“What’s really key for me is making sure that our customers understand our portfolio, how it’s going to drive those business outcomes for them and how we can deliver a multi cloud solution for them whether it’s off premise or on premise, making sure they understand the benefits of all our portfolio but most importantly to couple that with all the support as well.”

They’ll take what’s inside the box, Monty!In this syrupy sweet spot for Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate, a husband and wife keep giving each other gifts in little blue boxes.These aren’t Tiffany boxes, but our cutesy couple seem pleased as punch all the same:when they struggle out of bed for those 3 a.m.“We wanted to tell the story of a couple and their journey within an inside joke,” says Dan Schepleng, creative director at ad shop Kapowza, who also directed the ad for Maryland-based client.“All couples have inside jokes and their own little world.

Raise, one of Chicago’s most well-known consumer startups, announced today that it has secured a $60 million Series C round, led by Accel.PayPal, New Enterprise Associates and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated in the round.That brings the total amount of money raised by Raise — a marketplace where consumers can buy and sell gift cards — to approximately $147 million.Founded in 2013, Raise is most well known for its peer-to-peer transactions.But CEO and founder George Bousis says that the most growth in the business has come from working directly with brands — Raise gave retailers the ability to sell their gift cards directly on Raise’s platform a couple of years ago in order to drive up the supply of gift cards.“We found that driving supply was difficult because there was so much demand in the marketplace, when you’re basically selling dollar bills for 90 cents or so,” says Bousis.Current retailers who use Raise’s platform include Dell, Target, Macy’s and BestBuy.

The Huami AMAZFIT is a little more expensive than some other smartwatches but offers great performance and stability.Huami is another one of those Xiaomi owned sub-brand so while Huami isn’t a brand that you might be familiar with you can rest assured that Xiaomi is behind its products and they are good quality items.Case in point is the Huami AMAZFIT Smartwatch, a wearable with a simple, functional design, great features, awesome battery life and for less than $100 too!The Huami AMAZFIT Smartwatch looks a little like the Apple iWatch and even has a physical side button that has been designed to look like the screw on an analog watch.That single physical button along with the touchscreen are the ways which you can navigate the simple operating system.Search through the menus and you will discover modes including fitness tracking, heart rate monitor, Bluetooth setting for connecting to your smartphone, screen brightness and more.

Half-Life is one of the most beloved video game franchises around.Unfortunately, it’s pretty much an accepted fact at this point that Valve has no interest in producing a third major title in the series.Without something official in the pipeline, all that’s really left for diehards to do is tinker around with content that’s already available which is exactly what a small team of developers are doing.Whereas most modders like to focus on improving the original releases (Black Mesa is a perfect example), Half-Life 2 Classic takes a different approach.You see, the team is working to take the action from Half-Life 2 – developed using Valve’s own Source engine – and recreate it using the GoldSrc game engine.As you may know, the GoldSrc engine is a heavily modified version of the Quake engine that Valve used to build the first Half-Life game.

The ethereum network could pose a real challenge to large financial institutions like Visa as soon as next year, according to Vitalik Buterin, the creator of the ethereum blockchain.In a Q with AngelList founder Naval Ravikant at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday, Buterin said that security is the biggest challenge to bringing blockchain technologies into the mainstream, and that once it's sorted out, blockchain tech could steal business or even replace financial institutions like Visa in a "couple of years."Despite the hype around blockchain, most of the current applications that use the technology aren't far enough along in development to be used widely, he said.But Buterin said that while he expects low-security prototypes to be introduced in the financial space by next year, it will be a few years before they have any weight.Blockchain technologies like Ethereum are widely believed to be the next big disrupter for industries ranging from law to shipping.Often described as smart contracts, the technology uses a decentralized computer network to send messages which create a universally accessible ledger that can't be edited or modified.

in Addition to vinstmaskinen the Block invests the Norwegian digitaljätten Schibsted in a range of personal financial services.In the portfolio are låneförmedlaren Lendo, jämförelsesajten Prisjakt and rabattsajten Let’s Deal.Now expands the Schibsted ownership in bolånetjänsten the Mortgage by investing additional sek 10 million in the company, according to a press release.”We are pleased that Schibsted is continuing to invest.It gives us a solid foundation to stand on and we have the opportunity to build a strong company.Our goal is to offer an attractive mortgage rate to all, no individual discounts, or negotiations,” says Carl Johan Nordquist, ceo of the Mortgage.

ARKit and other augmented reality tools are going to make the experience more and more popular among developers and users — but, like any new platform, there probably won’t be a sophisticated way to monetize them yet outside of paying for a download.A team of developers from Google and Snapchat at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017 hackathon are hoping to take the learnings from that movement to help build a way to connect developers and advertisers to create ad experiences within an augmented reality environment.Sriram Bargav Karnati, Spandana Govindgari, Sai Teja Pratap, and Jaydev Ajit Kumar spent the last 24 hours at the hackathon building a way to insert an advertisement into augmented reality games with ARAD.“When we were building the app we were thinking, hey, how do we place this ad in a non-intrusive way,” Govindgari said.“When the user clicks this ad, they should experience a whole new ad format.We were aware of it but didn’t really dig deep into it, but as we learned more we learned it’s hard to make these 3D objects and detect objects in augmented reality.”

The brand new Apple Watch Series 3 is already sold out, but I’m not interested in getting one.However, I want one of the Watch Series 3’s upgrades inside my MacBook as soon as possible.The device has the same design and size as the previous models, and you can only recognize one by the red Digital Crown, which is supposed to make it stand out.We already explained the various innovations that Apple presented on stage, and one of them is Apple’s eSIM used inside the Apple Watch 3.For a monthly fee, your Apple Watch LTE gets to spoof your phone number, connect to the internet and work as a phone without an iPhone present.It’s incredibly small and incredibly powerful, considering what we’ve seen in Apple’s demo.

Creative production company iam8bit will start shipping a limited run of 5,500 Street Fighter II 30th Anniversay Edition cartridges—in "Opaque Ryu Headband Red" or "Translucent, Glow-in-the-Dark Blanka Green"—starting in November.Pre-orders have already sold out for the $100 package, which includes a retro-styled box, "Premium Instruction Booklet," and "Retro Pack-In Surprises."Re-releasing old games on new hardware has long been common, of course, and there's also been a growing niche industry of specialists releasing playable cartridge versions of homebrew titles, rare prototypes, and ROM hacks on a variety of classic consoles.Grab your original hardware, an old standard-definition tube TV, and bask in the nostalgia.It was an emotional moment to get a new cartridge, because they certainly weren’t cheap."Gibson recalls paying $70 in single dollar bills gathered from birthdays and allowance money to get a copy of Bad Dudes for the NES from Toys R Us (that's even more impressive when you adjust for inflation).

AMP critics and advocates alike have welcomed the news that the Safari browser in Apple’s iOS 11 will use canonical URLs when sharing mobile content — even when the page the sharer is seeing is an accelerated mobile page (AMP).Google’s AMP Project tech lead, Malte Ubl, noted on Twitter and elsewhere that Google had been asking Apple and others to make the change.In a Hacker News discussion forum, Ubl wrote:Just wanted to clarify that we specifically requested Apple (and other browser vendors) to do this.AMP’s policy states that platforms should share the canonical URL of an article whenever technically possible.Malte Ubl, Google's AMP Project tech leadOpinions may vary on the benefits and downsides of AMP, but both sides seem to agree unintentional sharing of AMP links is not ideal.

Singtel today launched Singapore’s first mobile plans featuring unlimited local data, phone calls, and text and multimedia messaging.Existing customers on Singtel’s Combo 3, 6, and 12 plans will be upgraded with unlimited talk time and SMS from today.They will also be able to purchase unlimited data as an add-on for about US$30 per month, which they can share with up to three family members for an additional US$8 per month.New subscribers to Combo 6 and 12 plans will also be able to pick a free data roaming plan each month, worth up to US$26 per month, for use outside of Singapore.Fierce competition has been sparked in Singapore’s telco space in the past couple of years.Regulators decided to open up the market to new players in February 2016, expanding the number of mobile network operator licenses from three to four.

The Asia Hardware Battle brings together business projects and startups from 10 countries and regions across Aisa.After more than 300 projects being registered in the preliminary selection around mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Israel, Singapore, and Thailand,15 teams have finally screened out to fight for the championship in the final battle, which will take place on 16th September in Shanghai Chang Yang Valley.Now it’s your turn to join the battle and witness the new “creative innovation and new energy” from Asia and enjoy the best 15 hardware startups to pitch.If you love hardware and making connections within the ecosystem, you’re definitely going to want to be there.The ticket is free, and all you need to do is to go through the registration and save the date.Click here to get the ticket now.